Nonduality Institute: For the science and practice of nonduality. Offering workshops, classes and private consultations.

Research

Scientific Investigations of Nonduality

Scientific research into the neural correlates of nondual realization can further our understanding of the nature of consciousness, and of the brain’s functioning in optimal states of wellbeing. It can demystify this aspect of human potential and help make the awakening to nonduality more accessible.

The research aims to explore the nature of nonduality through a multifaceted approach that looks both at the nature of nondual awareness, and at the ways in which it can influence cognitive, affective and somatic dimensions of our experience. Neuroimaging portions of the research are conducted at NYU and NYULMC.

Some of the questions we seek to answer are:

What aspect of consciousness realizes nonduality?

What are dimensions of embodied nonduality?

What is the relationship between nonduality and authentic subjectivity?

Selected Presentations

The Unified Context of Consciousness. Talk presented at the Society for Study of Consciousness annual conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT. June, 2015.

Are We Ready to Investigate Non-Dual Awareness? An Interdisciplinary Panel on Non-Dual Awareness. presented with James Austin, John Dunne, Eric Garland and Yoshio Nakamura, at the 2nd International Symposium for Contemplative Studies, Boston, MA. October, 2014.

The Unified Context of Consciousness. Talk presented at the 20th Toward the Science of Consciousness Conference, Tucson, AZ. April, 2014.

Finding Nonduality: Meditation in light of neuroscience and modern psychology. The New York Psychoanalytic Institute, Arnold Pfeffer Center for Neuropsychoanalysis, New York,, April, 2013.

Finding Nonduality: Neural correlates of nondual awareness in meditation. Talk presented at the Advances in Meditation Research: Neuroscience and Clinical Applications conference. New York Academy of Sciences, New York,, January, 2013.

The Nature of Mind: Clear Light Awareness. A discussion and panel exploring implications for scientific research into consciousness and wellbeing (organizer & moderator). Tibet House, New York, June, 2012.

Influence of Nondual Awareness on Anti-Correlated Networks in the Brain. Poster Presented at the International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, Denver, CO. April, 2012.

The Enlightened Brain. Talk presented at the 3rd ‘Buddhism and Science’ conference, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Aug. 2011.

MARGAM talks at NYU

The Metro-Area Research Group on Awareness & Meditation (MARGAM) series of talks at the New York University presents researchers discussing their current and emerging studies on contemplative practice and consciousness, and aims to facilitate dialogue and collaboration between neuroscientists, clinicians, philosophers, and scholars of contemplative practice engaged in research on meditation and related topics.

David Loy, PhD, author of The World Is Made of Stories; Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy; and Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution: "The Question of Self: A Phenomenology of Nonduality"

Katherine MacLean, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: “Training the Mind and Opening the Heart: Longitudinal Studies of Meditation and Psilocybin”

Clifford Saron, PhD, Center for Mind and Brain at University of California-Davis: “The Shamata Project”

Patricia Sharp, PhD, Bowling Green State University: “Neural Synchrony, Luminosity, and Bliss: A Very Speculative Theory for the Neural Correlates of the Buddhist Path to Enlightenment”